Govt removes restriction on neem coated urea production

In order to encourage production and availability of fortified and coated urea in the country, the Government has removed the cap/restrictions to produce neem coated urea. Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, said that a notification in this regard has been issued. “Using neem coated urea will not only increase crop yields but also lower input cost to farmers. In addition, it will reduce imports of precious fertilisers as well as reduce ground and soil pollution,” said the minister while addressing the media yesterday.
 
At present, India is using only 60 lakh metric tonne (MT) neem coated urea which can be increased to full demand of 310 lakh MT in the country. Ananth Kumar said that neem coated urea is costly by 5% compared to plain prilled urea but it reduces nitrogen loss by more than 10%, thereby incurring a net savings of Rs 13.5 per bag for farmers. Due to higher nitrogen use efficiency, the use of nitrogen coated urea can also eliminate import of urea resulting in huge foreign exchange savings. Currently, India imports about 71 lakh MT urea. Additionally, farmers will also get advantage of better yield, less pest attack due to less use of urea which will also ensure better NPK use ratio and balanced use of fertilisers, added the minister.
 
Stressing that there is adequate availability of fertilisers in the country, he said that in December 2014, 1706 rakes were used for supply of fertilisers as compared to 1488 in December 2013. The Minister clarified that there would neither be increase in urea price nor change in subsidy.